My daughter, Deb, our friend Dawn and I headed to Plymouth, MA to visit, and to learn more about our ancestors who came to America on the first voyage of the Mayflower, or as I like to call it, the mother ship 🙂

We recently learned that we are descended from Capt Myles Standish and John & Priscilla Alden. It had always been family legend that we came on that first voyage but having documented proof made it finally seem real. I had a teacher once who told me I was wrong, that everyone who had relatives or ancestors in New England claimed they came on the Mayflower and that they actually didn’t. Talk about squelching a dream. So I put the information in the back of my mind and now, many many years later it turns out my mother’s legend was right. The girls and I did so much in our 3 days away that I’m going to break it down into a few posts rather than try to get it all into one very, very, very long post… you’ll thank me for this later 🙂 So… let’s begin…. welcome aboard the Mayflower II

We all know that the Mayflower landed in Plymouth in 1620 and that there had originally been 102 Pilgrims on board. But something I didn’t know is where the Mayflower II replica came from ! According to Wikipedia in 1954 Warwick Charlton from England conceived the idea to construct a reproduction of the Mayflower to commemorate the wartime cooperation between the United Kingdom and the USA as a symbol of Anglo-American friendship….

Going below deck we met some of the crew members who told us many stories of the voyage of the Mayflower… 102 passengers and a crew of 25-30 began the journey, only 51 survived it. Two babies were born, Oceanus Hopkins while at sea and Peregrine White (our ancestor) when the ship was anchored in Cape Cod Harbor.

It’s hard to imagine life on board the Mayflower II no matter how vivid an imagination I have. The cramped quarters, the noise and smells, the sickness, the lack of privacy. But they made it and there were still more Pilgrims to come in future voyages. I feel kind of empowered knowing somewhere deep inside of me I might have that kind of fortitude.

If you’re interested in knowing more about life on board, the history of the ship itself and about the voyage… CLICK HERE to read about the Mayflower…